Social Justice Communication Collaborative

The Social Justice Communication Collaborative, sponsored by Saint Louis University’s
Department of Communication, is a group of faculty members and students pursuing social
justice through various communication channels.

The Social Justice Communication Collaborative defines social justice as a complex
entanglement of social and material realities that contribute to human flourishing
through the expression of equality, liberty, and dignity with particular attention
to micro and macro structures and the lives of people who are marginalized, dehumanized
and oppressed.

Statement of Beliefs

The following are the guiding principles of research conducted as part of the Social
Justice Communication Collaborative:

We pursue social justice through communication teaching, inquiry and activism.

We develop, deliver, and disseminate curricula, in various formats, at the intersection
of communication and social justice because we believe that communication is critical
for present and future activists and advocates.

We engage in practices that make the structures of education more just by increasing
access and renegotiating the boundaries between the academic community and other communities.

We plan, perform and promote community-based research projects in the pursuit of the
greatest possible good. We hold that communication inquiry should be democratic, equitable,
liberating and life-enhancing.

We create research partnerships that contribute to the lives of people who are often
marginalized and oppressed.

We challenge and extend communication scholarship by acknowledging and being present
to the overlapping and intersecting facets of marginalization, advocacy, and community.

We believe that excellent communication practices undergird the effort to make a better
world, and welcome the opportunity to work alongside, teach, and learn from and with
existing and nascent justice-seeking organizations and movements.

We enact, empower, and embody activism, advocacy, and relationships in the pursuit
of a more just society.

We know that fair, equitable, and liberating communication simply is what a better
world looks like.

Faculty

Faculty members in the Department of Communication focus on a variety of social justice
topics, including racial justice, youth development, mass incarceration and homelessness.